Wotanaz

5614:

obviously, everyone has problems, thats what this thread is about, depression, a common problem. it is human nature to compare things, although you dont have to you can not compare yourself to others, but it is - on the whole, a natural thing to do.

Nobody's disputing that, but there are healthy and unhealthy ways to compare yourself.

to solve depression you must make yourself look and feel good and better about yourself.

Simplistic. A person who is clinically depressed will not "feel better" without therapy (generally medication) no matter how much they smile and make themselves look good.

thats not true, you often here of selfless acts, such as saving a life at the risk of your own, thats selfless and is also an action, therefore that quote isnt technically right.

Your logic is very very flawed.

Saving another's life at the risk of your own is still a selfish action - you are trying to preserve one of your group, which benefits you.

NavahoEverclear:

I'm not sure myself if there is such thing as an unselfish action. Depending on the maturity of your thought process, you may no longer care for your own rewards, but in all the time and paths leading up to that were surely covered by actions for the benefit of yourself. Its just instinct, theres nothing wrong with that. There are many actions that are good for yourself and others. Infact i think it can be selfish to put too much emphasis on trying to be unselfish. I'm not sure how to explain why i say that, but i'm sure some of you understand what i mean

Makes sense. Our instincts are selfish, and can lead us to act in "unselfish" ways.

NavahoEverclear:

I still cant identify the exact trigger, but i realized that usually not noticing, i'm constantly placing no value on myself, and putting everyone else up on a pedestal, assuming they are so special because of something i wont be about to understand.

I doubt there's any 'exact' trigger.

Again, that's not a rare way to feel. When you're seventeen, you don't have as much perspective on people as you do when you're older. I would think - well I had the idea that everyone but me spent thursday through sunday partying, then the rest of the week was spent enjoying themselves with friends between classes. Nobody else was depressed ever and everyone but me had the most perfect family and boyfriend (girlfriend). Above all, nobody else could possibly identify with me or my interests.

Didn't help that my school was full of "trendy" people who definitely tried to convey that image, and very few of them could possibly identify with me or my interests.

Watching people up close will help. You realize that they have their own problems and uglinesses, and you stop comparing yourself to them in such an unhealthy way.

Thales:

All actions, even the "altruistic" ones, are based on selfishness.

NavajoEverclear:

Embrace existentialism

I heard there isn't really anyway to change your natural chemical balances (or imbalances), obviously there are drugs (legal and illegal), but they all have crappy side effects.

Depends on what you mean by "change". Medications will alter the way your brain processes certain neurotransmitters, but not on a permanent basis.

Maybe i'm some form of bipolar, because i have been known to be unusually happy on certain occasions, this is fairly rare though.

Bipolars go through a cycle of depression and elation. Being mostly depressed but sometimes happy doesn't really fit the description.

Besides the advice given (all good), it might also help you to keep a mental diary of when you're depressed and when you're not. Is there anything that triggers a deeper state of depression, and what changes on the occasions that you're happy?

According to your profile you're seventeen. I don't know exactly what your situation is, but I felt much the same way at seventeen, and most everyone I know well felt about that way at about that age. For whatever reason that is. Your depression may well pass.

Mine hasn't. At twenty I am a good deal happier and more secure than I was at seventeen, but I still have long periods of pessimism and gloom. They are not crippling, but I suspect (from talking to others older than I am) that such feelings remain with one all one's life.

Analyzing them will help you control them, and physical exercize will help you suppress them. The brain creates its own antidepressents in the form of endorphins.

1) Never had that experience.

2) Yes. I've noticed that my dreams generally have a plot - or rather, they are like Clive Barker's short stories, where one discrete short story bleeds into another.

Just like in a movie, the plot moves faster than in real life because the time it has to develop is shorter.

How does the subconcious function??? ?

First you'd have to say what the subconscious is, and we'd all have to assume it actually exists...